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Spotlight: Charlene Jones

Charlene Jones is still basking in the glow of being commencement speaker for the December 2007 graduation.

"That was the best moment of my life. It was fabulous," she says. "It gave me one last chance as a student to represent the school. Now as a graduate, I want to give back to JJC."

Charlene came back to school after her husband returned from Iraq in 2004.

"My husband and I were going to school at the same time so it was hard paying for both of us. I received financial aid and scholarships at JJC, which helped ease the financial burden on our family." Charlene says JJC made coming back to school an easy decision.

"What I liked about JJC is that there were students my age that were feeling the same thing about returning to school," she says. "Even when I started going back, there were such a wide variety of ages, that it wasn't a big deal."

Charlene graduated with an associate's degree in the administrative assistant field and transferred to DeVry University, where she is majoring in business administration.

"I don't think I could have graduated with honors if it wasn't for JJC. The teachers actually care about you. They care about how they can motivate you to graduate," she adds. "That's why it's so important to me now to be a part of JJC, because I want to be one of those motivators."